US job openings fell more than expected in June, suggesting that demand for labor is beginning to ease and this could reduce pressure on the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates aggressively.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, fell 605,000 to 10.7 million on the last day of June, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 11.0 million vacancies. The Fed is trying to reduce demand for labor and the overall economy to lower inflation to the 2% target.
U.S. central bank last week raised its policy rate by another three-quarters of a percentage point. It has now raised that rate by 225 basis points since March.
The government reported last week that wages and salaries jumped 1.4% in the second quarter after rising 1.2% in the January-March period.
Meanwhile, tech companies, crypto exchanges and financial firms are reportedly cutting jobs and slowing hiring as global economic growth slows due to higher interest rates, hot inflation and the energy crisis in Europe.
Among the clear signs is that growth in the world's largest economy, the United States, shrank for the second quarter in a row, while business growth in the European zone slowed in June due to rising living costs.
